Tag Archives: Germany

Now this is something else than what I originally intended with my little “series” about Bremen. But I never had such a good reason to love this city before because it is literally overflowing with helpfulness for the refugees who come here.

“I love Bremen” – Part Two: How Bremen welcomes refugees

Since a few weeks – I think it may be about one month – there is hardly any other topic on the news than the arrival of refugees in Germany. Suddenly they were not in Greece or Italy anymore – they were here, on our doorsteps. They are also in my hometown Bremen.

Festivals are for the love of music, clearly. But they are also an opportunity to go hog-wild. I’ve just been on Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel, one of the biggest music festivals in Germany. It’s three days of playful anarchy. Don’t wash, don’t behave, shout at people, dance wildly, drink too much… altogether very interesting asocial behaviour, especially on the camping ground. I’m not saying I like everything people do there. Like peeing against your tent while you sleep. Or being so wasted that they feel the need to jump around completely naked (interestingly only men do this). But it is kind of liberating to get rid of civilized life once a year. 🙂

A few days ago I had a conversation with some people I usually really like (and think of as reasonable human beings) about the problem of the huge numbers of refugees coming to Europe at the moment. See, I normally avoid discussing controversial political topics, be it with friends, family or strangers, because I don’t need that stress and see no point in trying to persuade somebody of my worldview. I think the basis of tolerance is to allow somebody his own opinion and belief, whether you can understand it or not. But there are some limits, and that’s for example when it comes to the basics of human rights and justice – things everybody should share because of common sense. The question of the refugees is one of these basics. Continue reading →

Let’s face it: When we visit the beautiful places on this earth we will hardly ever have them exclusively for ourselves. There will be other tourists and unless it’s not totally crowded that’s fine for me. But I’d still like to keep the impression that I’m in a foreign country. I don’t travel to the other side of the world to hear nothing but my own language around me, right? But indeed when you come to Australia as a German and especially when you sleep in cheap hostels like all the backpackers, this will happen to you. It is incredible how many of my folks run around on this continent. Of course ranting about all the Germans down here is a bit ridiculous as I am one myself. But I can’t help but think that Germans are invading this country. Here’s why. Continue reading →

More than 120 million euros – that’s the total amount of money that Germans spent for fireworks last year (I always think it’s funny to say “last year” when it was only 2 days ago, don’t you?). Isn’t that crazy?? Not a big surprise, though. My boyfriend told me he saw a guy in the supermarket who bought stuff for 700 euros alone. Germans are known to be a very serious people, altogether decent and righteous. But when law allows it to riot – then yeah, we go WILD! 😀 Continue reading →

I don’t particularly like New Years Eve. It’s always a pain organizing something fun. Inviting all your friends is impossible because you don’t have the space or they have other invitations already and they NEVER tell you if they will come until the very last day. Why is this so annoying? Because some weird social pressure tells you New Years Eve has to be the most special and legendary night of the past year. So it will definitely become the very opposite. But I don’t want to complain about “Silvester” how we Germans call it. I only say this to explain why this year me and my boyfriend decided to flee from this pressure and do something on our own instead: We went to Berlin, to the great Open Air Party at the Brandenburger Tor. I will share this experience with you. Continue reading →